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Comment by wolfgang42 | Hacker News Reader

Since this is a law in France, trying to apply English definitions is probably unhelpful. Here’s my translation of the definition[1] from Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, the official French dictionary:

> SAUCISSE (n) Intestine filled with chopped meats, most commonly pork, seasoned in various ways, which is often eaten hot.

This does seem to fairly definitely exclude vegetarian options.

[1] https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9S0563

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In the US, at least, most commercial sausages are made with artificial casings, rather than gut casings. I'd be surprised if that wasn't also the case in France as it makes industrial-scale production a lot easier without much difference in end product.

Despite their efforts, dictionary definitions aren't always in sync with common usage, and it seems obvious that the latter is what we should regulate on.

Eh, I remember being confused about American breakfast sausage being served with no regard to the casing. These terms aren’t perfectly portable across languages.

american breakfast sausage as given by many fast food places is usually some kind of pork or pork+beef patty with heavy sage seasoning. I've had success faking it with extra lean ground turkey and it was almost exactly the same.

In Germany, the market share of both kinds of casings is about the same, according to a large retailer. I wouldn't be surprised if France veers more towards the traditional side.

https://www.edeka.de/ernaehrung/expertenwissen/1000-fragen-1...

In Germany there's also sausages without any casing, so not a saucisse at all?

The dictionary describes the way words are used by people; it doesn't prescribe the way words must be used. If the way people use a word changes (e.g. if people start using the word "sausage" to also refer to these vegan products), the dictionary changes. You don't change the law to match the dictionary

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